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** Notes:**

N I want to say beforehand that this is an M/M story so if you don´t like don´t read, okay? Also that ANY flaming will be erased and if you piss me off enough with flaming, it will be motive enough for blocking, saying that enjoy the story :) Beta'd by SophusMao. I don´t own Komamura (though I´d love to ;), or any of the characters of Bleach, or any of the terminology I may use of Final Fantasy,Silent Hil,Resident Evil,or Charmed, I merely take them on a creative stroll. I also think Komamura is largely forgotten and doesn´t receive enough love, that said; enjoy the story ;)

Chapter 4: The Hollow who came in from the cold.

Human world, North West of United Kingdom, The Royal Forest of Dean, South West of Gloucester, Komamura Sajin POV (Aftermath of the battle):

"Yes, Komamura Taichö, I have already given the other Taichös my contact info, but I have not had the chance to give you my contact information. I wanted to speak a little with you, but I did not mean to bother, or offend you, if I did, I sincerely apologize" said Sven, honesty evident in his voice, with watchful but kind eyes.

"No, it is alright... It is just that you were staring at me, and that kind of attention usually means people gossiping about me, or mocking me. Not that I pay any mind to that, but sometimes is hard to listen to what they say, thinking that I cannot hear them" I answered.

"Oh, I see, I apologize I did not mean to offend you. I have not seen a werewolf in a very long time and I assure you I did not meant to disrespect you in any way. It´s just that I feel a certain kinship with you, both of us are lonely souls, with a painful past, I can see that in you, call it intuition" Sven answered with a knowing sad smile, and pensiveness clear in his face.

"What is it that you are looking for?" I asked bewildered, that made him brake away from his musings, making him to look at me.

"Allies, friendships, perhaps? I am not opposed to that idea, I believe that friendship is something worth pursuing, without it life would be a much darker, duller, and miserable existence, in my opinion" Sven answered with a warm honest smile, already having recovered from his previous melancholy.

"Friendship can be treacherous, friends can betray you" I answered bitterly remembering Tösen.

"True, the possibility is there, but not all of your friends have betrayed you, have they not? What about your fellow shinigami?" Sven answered in a kind voice, like he had an inkling about what I was thinking.

"You... have a point there, how do you know that I have been betrayed in the past, that we all have been betrayed in the past?" I asked curious.

"Empathy, I can feel what other people feel, to a degree. I can read their emotions, but I also can block them so they do not reach me, or in other words: turn my empathy off, but with you I only used my intuition" Sven answered.

"Any other skills I should know about?" I asked with a raised brow, curious to know.

"You will know, all in its due time, Taichö" Sven chuckled warmly and smirked playfully at me.

"Oh, will I?" I asked curious to know.

"Yes, Komamura Taichö, you will. Now, I have taken more than enough of your time, you need to rest and recover. Here, have my contact information, so you can contact me" Sven said the first part chuckling a little, and the rest seriously.

"Thank you" I said, nodding gratefully at him, which caused him to smile warmly at me.

"Well, I hope your recovery is swift and without incidents. Take care, Komamura Taichö" Sven said giving me a slight squeeze in my left forearm, picking up his nodachi, standing and inclining his head a bit in a show of respect, to which I answered with a nod, considering it was all I could do in my current state.

He turned away, moved his nodachi from his left to right hand, adjusted it pointing the hilt downwards to the ground and the sheath pointing to the sky, and started to walk away. He paused in front of the Yamamoto-Sama, and the other Taichös, Fukutaichös, Kurosaki Ichigo, and his friends, those who were not in this battle with us.

"Well, it has been quite the unexpected day, but now that I know that the wounded will be taken care of, and I have given you the necessary information for you to contact me. Unless you require anything else from me, I will take my leave" Sven said looking to the other Taichös, but mainly focusing in Yamamoto-sama.

"No, young man, we are thankful for all that you have done but we have it all covered from here. We will contact you when we have reached a decision, good night" Said Yamamoto-sama to Sven, grateful tone to his voice.

"As you wish. But please make sure to contact me should you want more information about me, mages, or any of the knowledge I possess. They will be at your disposal, to use or ignore as you see fit, Komamura Taichö and the other Taichö´s will be able to answer some of your questions, since they asked some and I answered, they will be able to tell you some information, given time to rest and recover from their injuries, of course" Sven answered politely but seriously, to which Yamamoto-sama nodded.

"Good. Do not worry, we will" Yamamoto-sama answered, to which Sven nodded, making a reverence of respect, leaving one fist open and the other closed, putting them together and bowing forth slightly, after returning to the same stance he had with his nodachi.

"Good night, gentlemen and ladies" Sven said leisurely walking towards the forest from which he came from, coat trailing behind him, both hair and coat being moved by the wind, mixing with the fog and fading out of sight before reaching the forest.

"What was that?!" Asked a surprised Abarai Renji, Kurosaki Ichigo was apparently startled too, though he had not spoke.

"Remain calm" Said Yamamoto-sama hitting the ground with his walking stick.

"Some mages were said to have the power of teleportation, and I am quite sure he teleported, but as he said before it has been a quite some time since we last encountered and interacted with one" Said Unohana Taichö, kind as always.

"Unohana Taichö, are we ready to move? Are the injured stable?" Asked Yamamoto-sama.

"Yes, the mage did good work on them, he sped up the recovery. We should not have any problem getting back to seiretei" Said Unohana Taichö.

"Good, let us return to seiretei" Said Yamamoto-sama hitting the ground with his walking stick.

They then helped us return, the 4 th Division took us to their headquarters and then took place our recovery, and time for us to rest.

- Seiretei 1 st Division Headquarters [2 weeks later] Komamura Sajin POV:

It had been a week since those involved in the "Royal Forest of Dean Incident" as many liked to call it were cleared to at least return to paperwork. It was a relief, the boredom was quite honestly making us who were wounded practically climb up the walls.

The news about our encounter set rumours and gossip loose, apparently the videos and pictures that had been taken about our encounter were shared and had spread like wildfire all around Seiretei. The 12 th Division suffered quite a humiliation for their mistake in the information they gave us, apparently all the information they gave all the teams was wrong and the 2 nd Division was tasked to investigate this. They could not stop the videos and pictures of the mage being shared, despite the efforts of some Taichös and Fukutaichös, many were the reactions about him; curiosity, distrust...

I had to admit that I was curious about him too, though I did not show it. Tetsuzaemon knew I was curious about the mage.

Which probably it is the cause of the meeting we were summoned to, the first we have been called to since we were sent to the Forest of Dean. The Sö-taichö wanted to discuss this with all the Taichös.

It was then when a hand waving in front of my face broke my musing, ah, Ukitake.

"Good morning Ukitake, how are you? I am sorry I was lost in thought" I replied bowing in a welcoming gesture.

"Do not worry, we all get lost in thought sometimes. I am good, also happy to be back to my duties" Answered Ukitake with a warm chuckle and smile.

"Are we the first ones to arrive? Or is everyone else inside already, besides Yamamoto-sama" I asked, not sensing much, besides Ukitake and Yamamoto-sama.

"The meeting is supposed to start in 15 minutes, we're early I guess. Kyöraku should be here before it starts, bless Nanao's heart she knows how to get him in line, you know how he is" Answered Ukitake chuckling at the last part with a fond smile.

At that moment Kuchiki Taichö appeared at the entrance of the gardens before the 1 st Division meeting room, stiffly nodding to us as a greeting, going to the side he usually waited for the meeting to start, that gave way to a part where bamboo grew.

The next to appear was Unohana Taichö, who properly greeted us, and approached us, she tended to stay and talk to us before meetings, kind and caring as always.

Next appeared Hitsugaya Taichö who greeted us and asked about our health, and that was when Kyöraku appeared next to us, with an embarrassed smile.

After that the other Taichös arrived in succession, it was in that moment when Fukutaichö Chöjirö Sasakibe opened the doors of the meeting room and beckoned us to enter and get in our places for the meeting to start.

-Meeting room, 1 st Division Headquarters Komamura Sajin POV:

We got ushered into the meeting room and in mere moments Yamamoto-dono appeared and took his place in his chair.

"Good morning, this meeting has been called because there is much to discuss. Since there have been "mistakes" made by the 12th Division that almost costs us many of our lives, we will return to gather information and anything that we need to do the old way, sending scouts, and agents with Taichö´s and Fukutaichö´s with them in their missions" said Yamamoto-dono with a scathing glare aimed at Kurotsuchi Taichö, who had the courage to look offended.

"Which brings the question of what are we going to do with our acquaintance Mage" said Yamamoto-sama looking at all of us.

"What do you mean what are we going to do? Don't you normally make those kind of decisions, eh? Yama-ji?" said confused Kyöraku before anyone else could voice that doubt.

"Normally, yes, but this is an exceptional situation. I value your opinions and input, so I need to hear what all of you think before we make a decision. So, please do tell me your thoughts about this" said Yamamoto-dono with an air of finality, he sat back in his chair, lacing his fingers together and watching us each in turn.

"If we're going to accept his help offering, we need to keep a very close watch on him. According to our fellow Taichö´s and Fukutaichö´s involved in the incident, he's a powerful individual, we'll need to take precautions with that too" said Suì-F?ng in that dry, stiff and curt way of hers.

"I agree, we cannot take a chance after what happened with Aizen, we are still recovering from that" said Kuchiki Taichö, with a contemplative expression.

"We should test him, see what he can do, in a controlled location, that if anything happens we can take care of any problems, should they arise" said Hitsugaya Taichö, with a contemplative expression and voice, thinking about the possible outcomes.

"What about the fake Karakura? It is still in the mountain area far from the Rukongai, is it not? That should be a safe place to the testing to have place, after all our soldiers do like to train there" I said, thinking that the location was perfect, isolated, away from the Rukongai's citizens, and destroying the fake Karakura would not matter.

"That is a good idea, less of a chance for innocent bystanders to be hurt" said Ukitake.

"Who cares about people getting hurt? What matters is a good fight!" said Kempachi, lusting for blood and battle as always.

"It does matter Kempachi Taichö, because people's lives matter. And you would do well to remember and respect that" said Unohana, frightening Kempachi.

"I think testing him would be good. Though trust me, he's good, kept us safe and healed us till you came, that says something about him" said Kyöraku.

"He could have some hidden agenda we don't know about. We can't trust him" said Suì-F?ng.

"No, I do not think so, he was genuinely honest to us. I really do not believe he would have a hidden agenda, he is not the enemy" said Ukitake.

"Regardless he needs to be tested" said Hitsugaya.

"I agree that he should show you what he can do. Let us try to be civil and not antagonize him, we need all the help we can get, not more enemies" I said, thinking that a hostile reception would not be pleasing.

"If he fails to be of use I can make use of him. It hass been a long time since I´ve had a mage or witch as a test subject" said Kurotsuchi with that evil grin of his, rubbing his hands together, and a mad glint in his eyes. The fur at the back of my neck stood on end and my blood felt cold.

"You will NOT use him as a test subject Kurotsuchi, or so help me. You have done more than enough damage since you have become a Taichö" I said, feeling strangely protective of Sven, the others might see him as a threat, or in those implied in the incident as an able warrior, but what I could see was a gentle young man, kind, caring, honest, perceptive, hoping to find allies, and friends if possible. I would not allow Kurotsuchi to destroy such a promising ally.

"Oh, yes? Like what? Pray tell" said Kurotsuchi with an air of arrogance.

"Do you really want me to say it? Or do you want me to get all of it written? Either way may take a while" I said beginning to get angry.

"Oh, please that accusation has no fundament" replied Kurotsuchi, still arrogant.

"What about when you were spying the WHOLE seiretei? Not just us Taichö´s, but our Fukutaichö´s, the common soldiers, the 4th Division personnel, the bathrooms, private rooms, the kitchen staff of every Division, even the private chambers of every Taichö? You even had the arrogance to spy on the Sö-Taichö, your superior. All of that tells a lot about you, and it is not good" I replied.

"Pfft, nonsense, you´re slandering, I did no such a thing!" said an outraged Kurotsuchi. Several of the other Taichö´s snorted, myself included.

"We have evidence of it all. Not only have I and my Division been keeping a close watch to your "activities" but also the second and sixth Division have been doing so, and with good reason, since you cannot be trusted" I answered, motioning to a large table with reports filled with the less than legal actions of Kurotsuchi, to which all Taichö´s looked surprised by the amounts of reports my men and I have given.

"All of this is your doing?" asked Kuchiki Taichö, perplexed.

"Not all of them, my men and I kept a close watch on Kurotsuchi, but yes, I did my share of the work" I answered honestly.

"We did our work too, Kurotsuchi can´t be fully trusted" said Suì-F?ng in a dry tone, pointing to another table next to the one that had the 7th Division reports.

"The sixth Division also investigated Kurotsuchi Taichö, our reports are there" said Kuchiki pointing to the right of Yamamoto-dono, at the opposite side of the 7th and 2nd Division reports.

"This will be reviewed at another date. Right now we have another matter to discuss, we all agreed to test the mage, and the location. Since those directly implied will not be the ones doing the trial to the mage, that leaves us with: 2nd Division Suì-F?ng Taichö, 4th Division Unohana Taichö, 6th Division Kuchiki Taichö, 10th Division Hitsugaya Taichö, 11th Kempachi Taichö, and 12th Division Kurotsuchi Taichö. Please head in orderly fashion to that table over there, a voting will take place, the one with the most votes will be elected to do the trial" said Yamamoto-dono hitting the ground with his walking stick.

As the voting took place and I waited for my turn to vote I seriously thought who would be best for the trial;

• Suì-F?ng? No, she is too brash, and too narrow-minded when in battle.

• Unohana? She prefers to avoid fighting. She is a healer after all, but somehow I think a battle between Unohana and Sven would not end well. She is one of the most powerful out of us, not that Sven lacks power by any means, but...

• Kuchiki? Well, he is powerful, and a master of both sword and Kidö. He would fare well against Sven, not to say Kuchiki is both intelligent and has a keen insight.

• Hitsugaya? Powerful: sometimes brash, but brilliant, keen insight. Most of the time he approaches a battle with a clear strategy in mind, but he can also be too reckless. Still, I think he would do well...

• Kempachi? A battle between Sven and Kempachi should never occur. I have very little doubt that that battle would end in a bloodbath, Kempachi would either succeed in killing Sven, or Sven would put down Kempachi without any remorse. If what I saw in Dean´s forest was anything to go by, Sven is kind, and caring, but when in battle he is utterly ruthless, that would not end well by any means...

• Kurotsuchi? If I sensed something about Sven would be that he would do all of us a favour and remove Kurotsuchi of the picture, but probably a battle between those two would not end well either, better not...

I was woken from my musings as Ukitake ended to vote, my turn in line was next, I just hope this ends well...

(A few minutes later, after the votes were done and counted...)

"And now we will proceed to the counting, I will name those who have votes" said Yamamoto-dono.

Kuchiki Taichö: 6 votes.

Hitsugaya Taichö: 1 vote.

Unohana Taichö: 2 votes.

Suì-F?ng Taichö: 1 vote.

"And that concludes our voting, Kuchiki Taichö, you will be the one doing the trial. Contacting the mage will be up to you, but we all will be present, so you will contact him here" said Yamamoto-dono.

"Sö-Taichö, if I may make a request..." said Kuchiki.

"What is it?" asked Yamamoto-dono.

"I would like that my Fukutaichö were the one to contact the mage" answered Kuchiki.

"Why? Why not contact him yourself?" I asked, doubtfulness colouring my voice.

"Because I want to see how he reacts to my Fukutaichö´s attitude, take this as the beginning of the trial" said Kuchiki.

"Very well, Kuchiki Taichö, call your Fukutaicho and have him to come to us, with his Denreishiki" Said Yamamoto-dono.

"Yes, Sö-Taichö" said Kuchiki, leaving quickly.

"I have better things to do, than staying here" said Kurotsuchi while he left too.

(After a few minutes, still in 1 st Division headquarters meeting room)

"Good morning, Sö-Taichö, Taichö´s" Abarai said bowing politely, receiving a welcoming chorus.

"Your Taichö wants you to contact the mage that is the reason you are here, you are to do so with the... what was the word?" said Yamamoto-dono confused.

"Speaker?" asked Ukitake.

"Yes, that, with that activated so we can all hear the process, though only you will speak" said Yamamoto-dono, to which Abarai nodded, understanding what this was about.

"Renji, be as you normally are with Kurosaki Ichigo, I want to know how he will react, here is the contact information" said Kuchiki, handing Abarai the contact card Sven gave us that day.

"Yes, Taichö" said Abari while looking and imputing the contact number, and putting the Denreishiki on speaker.

We heard the calling tones, the call was answered at the fourth ring.

"Hello, this is Sven Hylén, with who am I speaking to?" said Sven voice clear over the line, birds could be heard singing and chirping in the background.

"Yo there! This is Abarai Renji speaking from the 6th Division of the Gotei 13th. 'Was asked to call ya and tell ya that before your offer's accepted we need to see what ya've to offer" said Abarai in his most obnoxious and loud way possible, probably trying to see if he could upset Sven...

To which Sven answered with a pensive humm.

"What? What´d ya say?" said Abarai with irritation in his voice.

"What? Oh!. Of course, when and where?" asked Sven.

"Here in the soul society, when're ya free?" answered Abarai.

"Tomorrow morning, 08:00 A.M. After tomorrow I am free to meet anytime of your convenience, given enough time for me to be forewarned, of course..." answered Sven, perfect politeness clear in his voice.

Abarai looked at all of us and received nods from every Taichö, including myself.

"Ok, then it's settled, 8:00 A.M. Where´d we meet for us to pick ya up?" Asked Abarai.

"The meeting place for me is not a problem, where would be the most convenient place for my escorts to pick me up?" asked Sven, business focus clear in his voice.

"How ´bout Karakura´s main park? Sound good?" asked Abarai.

"Of course, who will be my escorts, if I may ask...?" asked Sven, to which Abarai looked to us. Hitsugaya and Ukitake had their hands raised.

"Your escorts will be; 10th Division Hitsugaya Taichö and 13th Division Ukitake Taichö, don´t worry they´ll recognize ya, all settled then?" asked Abarai.

"Not quite yet, what will this entail? So I know what to bring and prepare" said Sven.

"Combat, both sword and Kidö, I guess in ya case´ll be sword and magics. I´ve been told ya´re good with both, so get both ready, I guess..." said Abarai.

"Very well..." begun to say Sven, only to be interrupted by a loud creaking of a tree branch.

"I am not alone here, wait a moment, please" said Sven to the phone.

"Who is there? Stop with the charade, I know you have been following me for 20 minutes at least. Show yourself!" said Sven clearly not to us.

Then there was a loud sound, like when a hollow charges and shoots a cero, a growl in a foreign language could be heard, probably Sven cursing.

"Hey! Ya okay?" asked Abarai, concerned as most of us.

Then we heard the distinctive sound of a hollow howling, and an irritated sigh coming from Sven, then saying to himself (I cannot get a break of respite, ever, this is getting seriously old, really fast) with a tired sigh at the end.

"Yes, I am alright, do not worry, it is nothing that I cannot handle on my own" said Sven there was some wind blowing sound through the speaker, he was probably running...

Then we heard the doors of the meeting room being thrown open and Kurotsuchi coming through, carrying a portable computer.

"I had my underlings set cameras and recording devices through the forest of Dean, I got live feed from them not long ago. I programmed them to obviate normal humans, and animals, and to start recording and sending live data the moment something out of those parameters comes near them, see what they got" said Kurotsuchi in a low voice enough not to be heard by Sven.

At that moment we saw as Sven hid behind a large tree, with his side to it, hiding from direct line of sight from the hollow, he moved his hands behind his back pulling out a wakizashi and a large stainless revolver checking the bullets inside the reload chamber. The cameras zoomed in on him, showing that he had a bluetooth earpiece to speak to us, with his left hand in which he had the wakizashi he lifted the index finger pulsing a button in the bluetooth earpiece to speak.

"A little nuisance arose, do not fret, I can handle this on my own" said Sven.

"Where´re ya?" asked Abarai.

"In the Royal Forest of Dean" answered Sven his voice tone loud enough for us to hear him but not the hollow who was looking for him far away.

"What´re ya doing there?" asked Abarai curious.

"Scouring the forest, to see if I can find anything about what happened when your fellow shinigami were ambushed here" answered Sven in a whisper.

"Any traces that there´ll be are by now cold and useless" said Abarai.

"Not all, there are many ways of investigating, Abarai, besides I am not the one who has been here, am I wrong? The woods are littered with recording devices that normal humans would not see or perceive, but I am not human, remember? Besides, I know when I am being watched, be it by a living, sentient being, or machine" said Sven pointing his revolver to the nearest device who apparently was in the tree in front of him.

"Don't shoot!" yelled Kurotsuchi, which made Sven to chuckle.

"A question though, why are you hiding?" I asked, knowing he had to have known at least for a while that Abarai was not alone.

"Ah, Komamura Taichö, it is a pleasure to hear your voice. I have chosen to take cover in order to be able to talk to all of you, since when I defeat this one I will not be able to keep chatting with you, since I probably will have to retreat. They feel attracted to the typical outbursts of power that occur in battle, and when that happens they gather like moths to the flame. If you conceal or cloak your power and retreat they leave shortly after, sensing nothing but the residual presence of power, and nothing they can "absorb" they probably feel that they have nothing there to feed on and leave" said Sven.

"And humans are not wounded during that time" asks Yamamoto-dono.

"Not normally, no, if they get caught in the crossfire, to call it something, yes, but if not, then no harm befalls humans. Since normal humans have little to no sustenance to hollows, as I have observed over the years I have had to hunt hollows" answered Sven.

"Is there anything you´ve found?" asked Hitsugaya.

"Look, when my escorts pick me up tomorrow morning at Karakura´s main park I will tell you all that I know if you want, though to be honest there is not much more to say, where to hollow behaviour towards normal humans is related" said Sven we could see a faint icy blue glow coming from the revolver, and his eyes had shifted, the whites of his eyes had become midnight black and his iris had become a glowing gold, pupils slitted like a cats one. He was alternating between looking at where the hollow was howling still searching for him with frustration, looking directly at the recording device.

"Very well, young man, we will not delay you, we will see you tomorrow morning" said Yamamoto-dono.

"Excellent, until tomorrow, then, have a nice day, gentlemen, and ladies" said Sven before hanging up and storing away his bluetooth earpiece, his revolver was glowing icy blue colour, stronger than before, but not enough to give him away.

Then he checked the hollow, aimed and an incredible detonation could be heard from Kurotsuchi´s receptors and recorders.

The shot directly hit the hollow´s head, destroying it´s mask, and in a blur there was Sven cutting it´s head off, swinging his wakizashi towards the ground to get rid of the blood of the hollow.

Then he checked his surroundings and I think he teleported, but it looked as if he faded. Would we have been there I would have said before our very own eyes, it was mesmerizing to watch, I was impatient for tomorrow to come, I could not wait to see how this would play out, and I think I was not the only one.